Award Winning Salted Caramel Apple Pie: Let Fall Officially Begin!

This week comes as a huge sigh of relief. Why? Because it’s the first full week that one can officially embrace all things Fall and not have to suffer from the burns of judge-y stares from others. Yes, that’s right. Despite feeling the itch to do so since the beginning of August, I can now say the following, LOUD AND PROUD:

“Why yes, I have been saving my appetite for a month to go to the Big E’s Maine house this week.”

The list goes on.

Another beautiful thing that goes hand in hand with Fall, in this particular part of the state anyway, is the Southington Apple Harvest. For about two weeks time, in the beginning of October, one can smell the aroma of fried apple fritters, just about anywhere in town. In addition to being the home of a great craft fair, rides and plenty of vendors, the Harvest fair is essentially an opportunity to eat apples in every baked, fried and raw form.

In every effort to embrace the coming of Fall (and my newfound addiction to competitive baking), I decided to enter the Apple Pie Contest. Unlike other competitions I’ve competed in so far, bakers create a pie using their own original recipe. Really…the only rule is that the main players in the pie, are apples. What’s better, is that after judging, slices of entered pies are sold to fair goers so that profits can be donated to local charities!

Now, when I think of apple pie, I think classic…with a twist. For example, in the past, I’ve made apple galettes, apple pie bars, apple and berry cobblers, etc. For this occasion, I wanted to stick to a similar theme: a traditional apple pie with a salted caramel kick. After sorting through my recent recipe experiments, I found that I had kind of made most of the components of this bad boy before! And since they had been delicious by themselves previously, they had to be even better together…right? Well….it seems like the judges agreed because… this guy won! Boom!

It all starts with the crust…arguably the most important part of the pie. Yeah, I know…the filling is the star child, but the supportive crust is really the under-appreciated bedrock that holds it all together! Therefore, a winning crust has got to be sturdy, but flaky.

Despite it’s importance, the crust is actually quite simple to make, and is only comprised of a few ingredients: flour, sugar, a little salt, butter and water. After combining the dry ingredients in a bowl, you’ll be dumping that mixture out on to your counter and rolling the butter into it. This will result in thin layers of butter throughout. Then, you’ll be using ice cold water to bring it all together. The key to doing this is keeping it cold. Real cold. Every time you make the effort to refrigerate the crust, you’re solidifying the butter inside. If the butter is solid as the crust bakes, it will release moisture as it melts. That moisture then results in tiny little air pockets…AKA dem coveted flakes.

While you’re at it, whip up your salted caramel. Again, this tasty concoction is actually made up of very few ingredients: sugar, butter, heavy cream, vanilla and salt. It involves melting the sugar into liquid form, adding the butter and letting it turn the liquid into a deep golden brown color. Then, the heavy cream will come in and thicken it all up! Add the vanilla and salt, and that’s it! It can hang out in your refrigerator for up to a week or so!

The next day (since you’re obviously going to let your crust dough refrigerate over night…), you’ll work on the filling. Two things you’ll have to keep in mind: taste and texture. As far as taste goes, you’ll want to go with apples that create a balance of flavors, both tart and sweet. Texture wise, not all baking apples are equal. Some are more appropriate for pies, while other, softer apples, are more appropriate for sauces. I ended up going with half Granny Smith and half Golden Delicious.

When you’re cutting your slices, try to make them all uniformly sized and shaped. This will lend itself to even baking and a more compact fit in the pie overall. Aim for about 10-12 cups of cut apples, or about 6 large pieces of fruit.

Onto your apples, throw in your cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, flour, salt, lemon juice and zest, and mix. Those spices will make for a sweet, warm fall feeling, while the flour will thicken it all up so that you don’t have a soupy pie.

Time to assemble!

Go ahead and roll out one of your pie crusts, while leaving the other in the fridge to keep the butter solid. Once its rolled out and in your pan, sprinkle some sugar and flour onto the surface. This will prevent the crust from becoming soggy once the apples are added.

Now, this is where it gets tasty. We’re going for a layered effect here, so that the salted caramel flavor will be distributed into every scrumptious bite. To do this, uniformly layer on a third of your apple mix to the bottom of the crust. Try to avoid gaps! Next, drizzle on a quarter cup of your caramel sauce over the top of that. Repeat twice for three layers. Don’t worry if your pie seems over-full, the apples will shrink when you bake them.

When it’s time to roll out your second crust, put your pie in the refrigerator. Seeing a trend here? Feel free to be creative with your top crust! You can keep it simple by crimping the entire crust on top, or you can do a lattice design. You can even make a top layer by cutting your crust with cookie cutters and placing those pieces in a design on the pie. Finally, for a glossy finish, brush your pie with an egg wash and sprinkle with sugar.

To bake, you’ll start with an oven set to 400 degrees. This high temperature will help brown the crust. Then, you’ll decrease the temperature to 375 degrees to cook the filling through. After the pie is cooked entirely and removed from the oven…you’ll need to cool it for at least three hours. I know, I know. It seems like an eternity, but the filling needs to bind together so that it doesn’t all flow out when you cut it!

Well folks, there she is. An award winning twist on a classic. It’s one to make for Thanksgiving, Christmas, to celebrate it being a Saturday? You get it. Next week, we’re going back to where it all started…donuts.

Until then, stay tuned and stay hungry!

Erin

Salted Caramel Apple Pie

2016-10-01 09:48:04

An award winning twist on a classic: apple with a hit of salted caramel, all wrapped in a flaky crust!

Comments 4

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